One Weed at a Time

Our front gardens have been benignly neglected for a number of years now. Oh, we water, pull out dried branches, rake, pull a few weeds. But plants have died out and other plants have taken over entire sections and it's all just a big green mess, albeit a pretty one that still blooms alot. The whole thing is rather overwhelming so we're tackling it one small section at a time.

One of the newer problems is a strip between the original garden strip beneath the retaining wall and the sidewalks. It was created when they put in the sidewalks a few years ago. Before that it was just hard dirt and was where we parked instead of parking on the road. It was filled in by the road crew, overfilled actually, with leftover dirt, sand, and chunks of asphalt. And in the last couple of summers weeds have taken over.



There are two strips. The longest one, which you see above to give you a "before" image, runs to the left of the front walkway.




The shorter by about half the other side (33 feet in length I believe) runs to the right between the walkway and driveway. There's also a short bit on the other side of the driveway which I didn't photograph.

We spent the last week digging, watering, weeding, removing asphalt and rocks, adding compost, and finally laying this hodgepodge of collected stepping stones and pretty rocks and planting groundcovers. What a difference! Of course I still have to weed and return to splendor the top planter layer but, as I mentioned, taking this enormous project on in smaller steps.

The plan is for the groundcover (there's also some seeds tossed) to take over and keep the weeds down. I've used plants that can take a bit of stepping on and added the stepping stones for visual appeal and to make the back strip more accessible. The morning after I took this photo, a herd of deer walked through and left deep (in the now softened dirt) prints. Sigh. I might have to stick some twirly shiny things in the row to discourage a repeat.




This is one of my favorite pieces, it's from a stack of granite countertop samples my son in the building industry gifted to me.




Since we're just starting to come into our green season up here in the mountains, I'll leave you with this beautiful garden photo I snapped just down the street from my son's house, down in the valley. Irises are a month or two away from blooming here!